From November 1st to November 30th, participants of NaNoWriMo penned a grant total of 2,427,190,537 words together. That’s a lot of completed novels, and a whole lot of incomplete novels that might one day still be finished and grace our bookshelves adorned with Oprah’s Book Club sticker, a NY Times Bestseller sticker, or no sticker at all. Nonetheless, NaNoWriMo could very well have inspired the next great novel, and pushed the writer over the hurdle of actually getting things done. A remarkable thing about the National Novel Writing Month is that every year, it inspires writers of all calibers to start writing, and to give up other things in their lives just in the name of reaching the 50.000 word goal by the end of the month. It unites (very) young writers and old writers, novices and experienced novelists, and help a whole lot of us feel all kinds of emotions rage through our bodies; excitement, frustration, rage, enlightenment, a fresh round of excitement, relief and disbelief.

Although NaNoWriMo is so successful because it only requires one month of your life to write your heart out, let the new year be your personal novel writing year. It takes just as much effort to plan writing a certain word count in one month as it takes to plan one year. Upsides of a month is the relatively short duration, and lower chances of distractions that prove fatal to the project. On the other hand, advantages of taking a year is that you have more leeway. If an important distraction does come up, you still have time to catch up once life goes back to normal. All it takes is just as much commitment as you give the other aspects of your life, whether they be work, kids, a partner or hobbies. Writing, if that’s what you want to do in the new year, deserves a prominent spot on your list of priorities. With just a few more days to finish of this year and start with a fresh page, it is the perfect time for a new year’s resolution that will stick. Whether it takes you buying a brand new notebook and literally start on a blank page, or whether you need to commit to a schedule, the new year can be your testing ground for what works best for you. Whatever you chose as the activity you want to spend more time on in the new year, or whatever is your new year’s resolution, I hope you will keep your list of priorities, and don’t throw it out by summer. Writing will definitely be on mine…

We’ve all heard ourselves say it before: next year I will get healthier, leaner, smarter, richer, more philanthropic. Or a variety thereof. I’d like to hear from anyone how manages to meet all their new year’s resolutions, because they more often than not fail. The reason why we can’t seem to keep our promises to ourselves could be as simple as setting the bar too high, hitting the ground running too hard (sometimes literally), and ending up too hurt and demotivated to continue (figuratively). According to Dr. Koestner at McGill University, we’re likely not going to stick to our goals for 2010.  So, if we are doomed to fail at realizing our new year’s resolutions, how can we increase the chances of actually making some positive changes that last well beyond being recycled for next year’s new year’s resolution?

How to turn New Year’s Resolutions into a Reality

• Don’t be vague: saying you want to “lose weight” doesn’t define an achievable goal. As long as you lose a pound, you’ve lost weight, but that doesn’t mean you will be any happier. You’re more than likely trying to lose more than that, if you’re putting that goal on your 2010 to-do list. So, setting a realistic goal (for example, lose 1 pound per month), could work a whole lot better.
• Once you set your goal, you need a way of keeping track. Getting to July and realizing you should have lost 7 pounds by then, make $100 more a month, or write 70.000 words just sets you back so far that you give up on your goals entirely. Break the bigger goal up in manageable chunks, and schedule them. I’m already almost fully booked for January, so unless I schedule some goals it is just not going to happen.
• When it comes to scheduling the first 10.000 words you are going to write towards completing your novel by 2011, start with scheduling the first 2000 for the first week of January. Perhaps writing 5000 words by the end of January will also meet your New Year’s Resolutions, so figure out what might work best in your schedule in order for you to keep your commitment to yourself. Then, schedule it, and stick to it.
• How to avoid breaking your promise: if you set the goal of losing a pound per month, consider scheduling gym time like another appointment. If someone needs you for something during your gym time, just tell them you are already booked and will need to schedule another time. I find it far too easy to give in, and give up on my personal goals, when other people need me, whether for work or professionally. However, a commitment to yourself is just as important as any other one, so start treating is as such.

With a few days to go before the new year, this is an amazing opportunity to set new goals and plan out your ideal 2010. A little while ago I wrote about CompactCal. It illustrates how the time to plan your goals is now: with a handy overview of the entire year, in a vertically organized way, you can create a plan you can actually stick to.

The first bad weather of the season plus a number of holiday functions this month found me without both a serviceable pair of boots or dress shoes. Unfortunately, as most of you will agree, money typically gets tighter during this time of year with gift obligations and entertaining guests. The current economic situation, though less dire than a year ago, only amplifies this.

Assessing my fiscal position, I decided to eschew brick-and-mortar stores and shop online. I have been taking some salsa lessons since early September, but I need to finally bite the bullet and get some proper footwear. Last week, a friend and I went to a Salsa gala and I am definitely due for a new pair of shoes if I want to take this new hobby seriously. I found an online store with a good selection of shoes, which doesn’t require me to leave the house. Trust me, it’s not appealing with the snow pretty much blowing horizontally on some days. The store I found is called Shoebuy. They have a large range of brands with fairly reasonable prices. The nice thing about internet shopping is that with a little bit of searching, it is possible to find some pretty good deals through coupon and promotional codes.

These are codes thank you enter into the field provided at the checkout. Alternatively, some codes require you to enter the site using a particular link/address. Regardless, as these stores do not typically have the overhead of most brick-and-mortar stores (salespeople, rent, etc.) they can still make a profit while offering steep discounts to consumers. These codes are one way they do this.

In some cases a few generous souls will even dedicate some of their time to compiling these codes. The best example I found for shoes was Shoebuy Coupons. This site offers both promotional codes and coupon codes for the store. These codes are free and give varying amounts off an order. Just click the aforementioned links here to go to the coupon site, from there click on the link given for the deal you want to get, and then enter the code (if applicable) given at the checkout.

They are offering up to 65% off certain types of shoes. Note that most deals of this nature are time-limited, but the coupon site constantly updates with new deals as they appear.

I’ve bought Capezio ballet shoes when I danced ballet, so now I might stick with this brand and go for this pair:

The next Christmas party I am attending happens to be a potluck, so I suppose my next shopping trip has to be to a real life grocery store. However, if you happen to be snowed in I recommend Grocery Gateway. If you happen to go out for food, and if you live in Canada, don’t forget to check save.ca for discounts on items you might be needing this month.

Happy e-tail shopping!